Paris Basketball vs Maccabi Tel Aviv Prediction, Odds, Best Bets - Round 9

Two 2-6 teams meet in Belgrade, where Maccabi Tel Aviv play their home games in front of somebody else's crowd. Paris arrive with their best player back from injury and a road win in Dubai behind them, facing a Maccabi side that gives up more points than almost anyone in the league.

The Matchup

Maccabi Tel Aviv's problem fits in one line: they allow 94.1 points per game, tied for the worst mark in the league, and a team that defends like that has to win shootouts to win anything. They score 85.8 a night, enough to hang around, but every opponent's offense looks healthier against them, and at 2-6 the pattern is set rather than unlucky.

Tuesday was the pattern at its worst. Maccabi lost 100-78 at Crvena Zvezda, trailing 34-15 after one quarter and 47-22 not long after, in a game that was finished as a contest before halftime. Jimmy Clark scored 19 points and Roman Sorkin 13, and neither line mattered, because Maccabi's defense had already given the night away.

Paris Basketball are also 2-6, and they defend badly too, allowing 92.8 points per game. The difference is what Paris do with the ball and who now has it. They score 87.0 a night at the league's most frantic pace, and on Tuesday they won 99-93 at Dubai Basketball, ending a four-game losing streak in a building where the hosts had been rolling. These are two leaky teams, but only one of them arrives with momentum and its best player back.

Key Factors

Nadir Hifi is available for Paris, and Tuesday proved what that means. He returned from an ankle injury that cost him three games and scored 20 points at Dubai, with 12 of them in the final five minutes to close the win. Jared Rhoden matched him with 20 points, and Sebastian Herrera added 12, so the Paris backcourt that opponents have to chase for 40 minutes is whole again. Hifi bends a defense on every possession, and Maccabi's defense has not bent toward anyone all season; it has simply broken.

Maccabi's own backcourt is thinner than it was a month ago. Iffe Lundberg is out with a partial tear of his quadriceps tendon and is not expected back until December, which leaves Yam Madar, who is available and scored seven points on Tuesday, carrying the position with little behind him. Against a Paris team that presses the pace and hunts tired guards late, that shortage is exactly where the game can tilt.

The venue tilts it further. This is a Maccabi home game in name only, played at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall in Belgrade, the club's base while it cannot host in Tel Aviv. There is no home crowd to lift a struggling defense or rattle a visiting guard, and Paris know the trip well: they won both meetings with Maccabi last season, including the game played on this same Belgrade base.

Every pick is published with its line before the game. Odds via consensus sportsbooks at time of writing and move constantly. Must be 21+. If gambling is a problem, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER.